Lorne Polger: Passion and People — The Foundation of 11 Funds and 135 Deals.

On this episode, Kevin chats with Lorne Polger, co-founder and Senior Managing Director of Pathfinder Partners, about his journey from practicing real estate and environmental law at Procopio for over 20 years to leaping into the operator role with partner Mitch Siegler just before The Great Recession. Pathfinder is a vertically integrated real estate company whose funds deploy investor capital directly into their projects, avoiding double promotes associated with traditional equity funds, playing on the value-add and opportunistic side of the risk spectrum in smaller transactions than the largest funds. Raising their 11th fund, they've gone full cycle on about 100 assets and acquired about 135 deals, targeting secondary markets in California, Arizona, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Nevada. The conversation covers how relationships are central to commercial real estate, choosing investment markets wisely by looking to job growth and diversity of sectors, why Colorado and Arizona appear more favorable than Oregon and California due to political environments, and relying on principles like creating alignment between investors and operators, investing in people through equity, being transparent about bad news, and acting for investors as you would for yourself. Lorne discusses coming buying opportunities in hotels capitulating in 2021, adaptive reuse from hotel to apartment, buying multifamily at less than 100 cents on the dollar with cheap debt, why this is a good time to be picky about quality, how NODs and bankruptcies are ticking up, building an advisory board for accountability and expanded vision, and his two tips for success: work your passion and be focused.